Euskal Oiloa ( Basque Thread)

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

I'm actually extremely impressed with these birds. Browsing through the pictures they seem really consistent. You're probably saying "WHAT?!" but look closer...the shape and size seems mostly really consistent on them as well as being consistent with what I read in the standard. The combs are tight and follow the skull and though they're not all perfect, they don't seem as disastrous and variable as you see coming out of other breeds. You're not seeing crazy tail angles or even much of a problem with narrow bodies (after maturity) or pinched tails, are you? If you are, you guys are doing a really good job of making sure you don't take pictures of those birds, LOL!

You can REALLY see the careful care and selection that has gone into them. Maybe it's good they they aren't popular—nobody's had a chance to pollute them with willy-nilly cross breeding or carelessness. I couldn't give a flying fig what color plumage or shank color they have—ok, I do like the bright yellow shanks, but I actually prefer the variable color patterns!—as long as that strong, solid type, consistency and production is there.

These are a real treasure. Let's not mess them up. PLEASE don't introduce garbage genetics to these birds to "improve" them or get other fancy colors! PLEASE!!!

 

[ronott1]

Thank you so much for saying this. I look at my 11 and they are so robust it amazes me. 15 were shipped across the country and 11 of them hatched. They have wing feathers the day after hatch. They are eating like crazy and flying around within the first week.

I think maybe too many breeds here have been mixed with leghorns, so I do hope we can keep these pure here.

Ron

I'm actually extremely impressed with these birds. Browsing through the pictures they seem really consistent. You're probably saying "WHAT?!" but look closer...the shape and size seems mostly really consistent on them as well as being consistent with what I read in the standard. The combs are tight and follow the skull and though they're not all perfect, they don't seem as disastrous and variable as you see coming out of other breeds. You're not seeing crazy tail angles or even much of a problem with narrow bodies (after maturity) or pinched tails, are you? If you are, you guys are doing a really good job of making sure you don't take pictures of those birds, LOL!

You can REALLY see the careful care and selection that has gone into them. Maybe it's good they they aren't popular—nobody's had a chance to pollute them with willy-nilly cross breeding or carelessness. I couldn't give a flying fig what color plumage or shank color they have—ok, I do like the bright yellow shanks, but I actually prefer the variable color patterns!—as long as that strong, solid type, consistency and production is there.

These are a real treasure. Let's not mess them up. PLEASE don't introduce garbage genetics to these birds to "improve" them or get other fancy colors! PLEASE!!!

 

[ChestnutRidge]

I missed that the grey one was an EO. Looks like a female. really interesting color. I can't wait to see what see looks like in a few weeks.
Is that black chick Leghorn?

Yeah, the Leghorn is the dark chick in the picture.

Adding updated pics of our EOs.

To the far left is a lavender ameraucana with two golden EO pullets in the middle On the bottom are the two "normal" color cockerels (their gold barring is hard to see in this picture) and to the far right, upper corner is the red barred cockerel. Loving the color on the red barred boy!

What did he look like when he was a chick?

I love seeing the photos of everyone else's chicks! And I wish I were as disciplined as ronott to not drive myself crazy guessing genders

Me, too, but you have to know your own weaknesses!

I pick my battles - with myself.

honestly, i don't know where they are from! there is a person here in our huge city that just likes to order rare eggs and hatch them to sell the chicks. she(or he, not sure) is not even allowed to have chickens due to hoa, so the chicks are given to a breeder of show ameraucanas to sell. i saw the CL ad and drove out there twice and snatched them all up! having some mille fleur in there leads me to believe they came from james, i had one other pullet that looked exactly like the mille that THAT BLOKE has. she was sold and was oh so sweet, but 11 of these chicks cost me a small fortune so some had to go.

Good job snatching them up! They look great.

 

[Maggiesdad]

I love my Basque Hens. And the rooster is pretty cool, too!

 

[Maggiesdad]

These shots are from today. They are 24 weeks and three girls have already laid 30 eggs.

 

[naturespace]

These shots are from today. They are 24 weeks and three girls have already laid 30 eggs.

Oh my goodness, they are beautiful!!!
That exactly what a nice Basque flock should look like.

 

[buckabucka]

These shots are from today. They are 24 weeks and three girls have already laid 30 eggs.

Wow!
And that rooster is gorgeous!

 

[mzstre]

My EOs will be 8 weeks old tomorrow, and I just love them! I am now faced with the unhappy task of re-homing a couple of the boys, though. I have a slew of EO, BLRW and Lav Ameraucana cockerels running around. I am in Louisiana and have no problem selling the Ameraucana & BLRW boys, but I have had NO interest at all in the EOs! No one is familiar with them here. I'm not really sure what to do because these boys are just too sweet to eventually end up in the freezer!

I took a few pics on my phone last week - sorry for such bad quality. I'll try to post some good ones later.

My darkest boy is on the left - he really has a lot of red barring starting to show up. They were all "helping" me prepare my gardens for planting lol! There are a couple of my Lavender Ameraucanas in the background.



These 2 look very similar, one just has darker golden barring.





This is Lewis, my absolute favorite! He is a sweetie and way too smart for his own good. He watches everything we do. He saw that I didn't turn the top on the food container all the way and immediately opened it to get himself a treat! I know he isn't the color that everyone seems to be striving for, but I'm still keeping him for his personality. I have another boy, Clark, who looks almost identical and has a very similar personality. They both started off almost solid white but have gained substantial color over the past few weeks. Has anyone noticed any correlation between color and personality?

 

[naturespace]

Quote: My White EO is very loving and also biggest. He wants attention as soon as he sees me. The two i have that are closer to the standard color are nice too, but he stands out as being really friendly. I'm wondering if the 'friendliness" will end up being and aggressive trait as they get bigger. I'm keeping all of mine until I see how they look in a few months. Then I'll pick.

 

[Kansaseq]

Has anyone posted egg photos from these birds? I admit to not going through the entire 116 pages, but I would like to see some egg pics if they exist